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MEMBER DIARY

Boehner Should Resign

There comes a certain point when enough is enough: American Majority Action (AMA) believes it is time for Speaker John Boehner to resign after his embarrassing failure to pass his “Plan B” fiscal cliff bill.

Speaker Boehner killed the planned 7:30 p.m. vote last night when he realized that AMA and other groups had succeeded in holding enough conservative members to defeat the measure. AMA has been leading the charge against Boehner–kicking off the #FireBoehner movement–since he removed four conservatives from their committee placements and started pushing tax increases as a solution to the fiscal cliff.

The reason is that AMA, and the conservative House members who dissented last night, believed Plan B would have let taxes increase on job creators, while doing statistically nothing to fix America’s debt problem. Our real problem in all of this is a spending problem, yet neither side is offering a serious proposal about how to rein in government spending. Speaker Boehner embarrassed himself yesterday by pushing a plan which AMA told him he didn’t have the votes to pass. After the 2012 election, conservatives must take this opportunity to define the direction of our movement–and proposing a plan Nancy Pelosi wanted just months ago isn’t the solution.

Remember, Speaker Boehner lost more than 35 votes last night, and the #FireBoehner movement needs only half that number to force him out of office January 3. He should save the Republican Party the embarrassment of a public leadership battle and resign. The world might not have ended today, but Speaker Boehner’s power is at an end. It’s time to make room for fresh leadership and a new approach to governing. Without Boehner’s resignation, no fiscal cliff deal will be agreed to until after the January 3 election for Speaker.

But let’s be honest about the Speaker options outside of Boehner: Eric Cantor is not an option. Kevin McCarthy is not an option. Jim Jordan, Jeb Hensarling, even Dr. Tom Price, are acceptable options, with Jim Jordan being my first choice.

Speaker Boehner’s leadership has been discredited, and now he’ll procrastinate on preventing the fiscal cliff until he can re-secure power. Our country’s economy and the Conservative Movement deserve better than to be held hostage by Speaker Boehner’s last cling to power. Time for a change, and time for a change right now.